It’s about to be official: Rossi vs. Gregoire again in 2008

Dino Rossi, who lost to Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire by 133 votes in the 2004 election, will make a long-expected announcement Thursday that he’s running against her again next year.

Jill Strait, who identified herself as a Rossi campaign spokeswoman, wouldn’t confirm on Monday that Rossi is about to make his all-but-obvious candidacy public but other Republican sources confirmed it.

Strait said the Sammamish Republican will announce something at the Village Theater in Issaquah at 10 a.m. and at the Doubletree Hotel in Spokane at 4:30 p.m.
The theater is in the 5th Legislative District that Rossi once represented in the state Senate and was where he also kicked off his 2004 campaign.

Afton Swift, who ran Rossi’s 2004 campaign, will manage his 2008 effort. His 2004 fund-raising consultant, Amy Barnes of Fundraising Partners Northwest, is also expected back.
Many of Rossi’s top 2004 advisers, including J. Vander Stoep, a lawyer and political consultant who was former Sen. Slade Gorton’s chief of staff, are at the core of his new campaign, too.

While no announcement of Thursday’s events has been made, Republicans are quietly being urged to turn out for them. News media calls to Rossi’s phone were referred to Strait.

“There’s an event; I’m not sure what it’s about. Can it be possibly that he’s running for governor?” King County Republican Chairman Michael Young said facetiously, declining to confirm or deny Rossi’s long-obvious candidacy.

The conservative political blog Sound Politics first reported Monday morning that Rossi would announce his candidacy Thursday.
Republicans have been fired up about a Gregoire-Rossi rerun since 2005, when a Chelan County judge validated Gregoire’s election in a lawsuit filed by the state Republican Party after two hotly contested recounts. They stemmed mainly from ballot-counting foul-ups in King County.

Rossi has said he wouldn’t decide on a candidacy until after he and his family had discussed it. He has been the only Republican considered to be a viable challenger to Gregoire.

The state Republican Party build-up to his candidacy has been carefully orchestrated.
The theme of the state party’s annual fall dinner Oct. 10 was “Run Dino Run;” the keynote speaker was Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, chairman of the Republican Governors Conference, who personally urged Rossi to run. Rossi, as he has said many times, told the enthusiastic crowd that he was still evaluating whether to become a candidate.

Rossi and GOP officials have been circumspect about discussing his potential candidacy because of a complaint filed by the state Democratic Party and now being investigated by the state Public Disclosure Commission. It contends that a public policy foundation created by Rossi has served as an illegal front for his de facto campaign for governor.

The Forward Washington Foundation, bearing the same name as Rossi’s 2004 campaign agenda, paid him $75,000 a year to be its part-time president and speak to friendly audiences across the state until he resigned last month, apparently to start organizing his 2008 campaign.

“Republican Dino Rossi has been campaigning illegally all year with his sleazy front group, so the only surprise here is that he’s finally decided to follow the law,” state Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele said.

Gregoire hasn’t announced her equally obvious candidacy yet, either, but last month her fundraising for 2008 passed the $3 million mark and she has more than $2 million in the bank. Rossi will be starting from scratch to raise money, but the GOP’s Young said he will be able to raise money quickly.

“I think that a lot of people have been waiting four years to write him a check,” Young said. “You might even call it a pent-up demand.”

Rossi soon will have an opportunity to catch up with Gregoire’s campaign chest. As a state elected official, she will be barred from raising money from 30 days before the 2008 legislative session begins in January until it adjourns. The session is scheduled to last 60 days, which would mean a three-month dry spell for the governor’s fund raising.